Jamsostek to build more flats on Batam

SUMENEP, East Java (Jakarta Post): State insurance company PT Jamsostek is planning to develop 100 more low-cost apartments for workers on industrial estates on Batam Island, Riau Islands province, in the next five years.

"Housing is urgently needed in Batam since hundreds of thousands of low-income workers have occupied illegal huts which have raised serious problems for the Batam authorities," Jamsostek president Hotbonar Sinaga said here Saturday.

The construction of the new apartments will start next year.

So far Jamsostek has built two apartment blocks to accommodate some 6,000 workers on the island.

Sinaga said the government has agreed to issue a special regulation on the housing project, worth Rp 300 billion (US$32.37. Jamsostek will put aside Rp 100 billion from its 2007 and 2008 profits to finance the project.

He added that the apartments will be built on 60 hectares of land near the Muka Kuning industrial zone on the island. --JP